Bolivia Guide
La Paz
The Cathedral
Address: South side of Plaza Murillo
With its twin belltowers and broad but rather plain Neoclassical facade, the Cathedral is remarkable more for the time it took to complete than for its aesthetic value. Begun in 1835 (when its colonial predecessor had to be demolished due to structural problems), it wasn't inaugurated until 1925, and was finally completed only in 1989 in a last-minute rush before a visit by Pope John Paul II. The cool, vaulted interior is relatively unadorned, in contrast to La Paz's many Baroque churches; its most unusual feature is a stained-glass window depicting former presidents Mariscal Andrés de Santa Cruz and General José de Ballivián and their families receiving blessings from on high, a surprisingly explicit expression of the historic conflation in Bolivia of church, military and state. One of Bolivia's most revered former presidents, Santa Cruz, was reburied in a small side chapel of the cathedral in 1965, a century after he died in exile in France.
In a crypt underneath the Cathedral, the Museu de Arte Sacro de la Catedral, holds a small collection of religious art.